Research Projects

Pupillometry instruments currently used by clinicians lack support for chromatic light presentation, dynamic changes, and eye movements. This project aims to develop a binocular eye-tracking pupilometer device, validate it with a commercial pupillometer, and collect clinical data. Traditional pupillometer testing involves shining a white light beam into the pupil and looking at the non-illuminated pupil for a consensual response. The parameters of interest include maximum constriction velocity, absolute constriction amplitude, latency, and maximum constriction acceleration. These parameters indicate the engagement of the afferent, interneuron, and efferent pathways of the (para)sympathetic neurons. The proposed study aims to collect and analyze data from various disease conditions and prepare models/reference ranges. The data analysis will consider the pupil response's non-light reflexes with novel stimuli when deriving models. The project will design and develop a standalone portable low-cost multi-conditions testing tool with modular components such as RGBY LED light automated for stimulus presentation, dynamic pupil size measurement by Purkinje images and/or feature extraction, computation system for eye movement analysis, and learning/prediction algorithms. The data collected from patients and healthy individuals will be validated with data collected using research-grade commercial eye-trackers to generate models. The proposed modular device can also be applied to test for attention disorders in children, alcohol consumption by drivers, stress, and psychological conditions manifesting in eye movement behavior.